McNamee improves his deadlift world record

WHILE slightly disappointed not to hit the heights he had hoped to before he went to Liverpool, Gavin McNamee was pleased to increase his own under-90kg World Record deadlift at FitXpo.

The Strabane man had planned to lift 400kgs, which is around four and a half times his own bodyweight, but when he arrived at the venue on Saturday he soon realised that wasn’t going to be possible as conditions weren’t conducive to such a lift.

Instead he readjusted his goals and decided to add an extra 1.5kgs onto his record and he achieved it with relative ease, lifting the 377.5kgs without issue.

He also finished third in the open category, just 2.5kgs behind the second place finisher and won the under-90kg deadlift and log competitions in the process.

“I was hoping to do 400 in the deadlifts but the way some of the conditions were back stage, things were a bit rushed,” he explained.

“I was a bit surprised seeing as it was such a big competition, but they seemed to be a bit unprepared for the amount of competitors.

“But I still increased my world record, I did what I said I was going to do, so I’m happy enough and I’ll do 400 this year, that’s for sure.

“Because compared to the last time I broke the record it was a lot easier this time. It was still hard because it was 360kgs is four times my bodyweight!”

While frustrated by the back stage set-up in Liverpool, one thing Gavin thoroughly enjoyed on Saturday was being the centre of attention on the big stage, something he hopes to savour again.

“That was my first time being on a stage like that, in front of hundreds of people,” he admitted.

“It was surreal, I couldn’t believe it and I was just trying to soak it in at the same time as trying to focus on the lifting. It was definitely something else, something I really enjoyed and it’s something I will be doing a lot more of.”

Gavin will now turn his attentions to competing in Ireland’s Strongest Man in Limerick in the middle of August but he admits, training for those events is going to be easier said than done!

“You can’t really prepare for a lot of the events at competitions like that,” he explained. “For example, there is a block press and the blocks are 80, 90, 100, 110 and 120 kilos, so it’s going to be hard to find block shaped objects of that weight!

“So, it’s going to be hit and miss on the day and we’ll see what happens. But it will be a hell of an experience!”